Once Upon Another Time
by MyLadyScribbler
Summary: They say that the story of the Hero of Time and the Princess of Destiny didn't have a happy ending...or did it? On a rainy day, Zelda and Link sit in the castle library, making up their own stories about the two figures from legend. After all, who decides how stories get to end?


It's a rainy, gloomy day at Hyrule Castle, and Zelda and Link are two bored children looking for something to do. So they find themselves in the castle library, talking about the Hero of Time and the Princess of Destiny. Zelda thinks the story in the big book of legends has too sad an ending, so she and Link talk about other possible ways that the story of the hero and the princess might have turned out.

A retelling of the events in _Ocarina of Time_ and _Twilight Princess_.

I do not own_ Legend of Zelda_; the story and characters are the property of Shigeru Miyamoto and the kind people at Nintendo.

**xLoZx**

It was a cold, gray, wet fall afternoon in central Hyrule, the kind of day best spent inside.

In the royal library at Hyrule Castle, Zelda stood on her tiptoes to reach the big book bound in red vellum that was just out of her reach.

She could have asked a grownup for help, but the only other person in the library at the moment was Daltus. And she didn't want to have to deal with the fussy and humorless assistant librarian any more than she already had to.

She just grasped the book, and pulled…

And it came loose from the shelf and sent Zelda stumbling backward into the opposite shelf with a clatter. "Whoops!" She tried to right herself but tumbled onto the floor. "Ouch!"

"Princess Zelda, what are you doing?" Daltus came over and glared sternly down at her, hands on his hips. An overly serious young man with pince-nez glasses on his nose, Daltus was of the opinion that children should not be allowed in the castle library. Even if those children were princesses of Hyrule.

"Just getting a book out," Zelda said, picking herself and the book up.

"Then do not make such a commotion while you are doing so. It disturbs the peace of the library." Daltus cast a glance at the book's title: _Wondrous_ _Tales and Legends from the Kingdom of Hyrule._ His lip curled. "You're too old to be reading fairy tales." He headed for the desk, picked up a sheaf of scrolls and headed out of the library.

Zelda stuck out her tongue at Daltus's retreating back. Why did a fuddy-duddy like him have to be in charge of the library today?

If only Bagu weren't sick in bed with a head cold. Not only would the chief librarian have approved of Zelda's reading matter, but he'd have recommended five other books to read, and then insist on telling a few stories himself. With lots of lion roars and horse neighs thrown in.

And it wasn't like Zelda was disturbing anyone. There was nobody else in the library. Perhaps even the scholars didn't feel like studying or working on a day like this. Or maybe they were all avoiding Daltus too.

Zelda headed for her preferred spot in the library: right by the fireplace. A giant blue velvet floor cushion and a plate of ginger cookies, fresh out of the castle pastry chef's ovens, waited for her there.

Zelda flopped down on the cushion and set the book down in front of her. The cover, with the title in big golden letters, had a beautiful (if faded) cover painting of knights and castles and monsters.

Zelda reached for a cookie and flipped open the book. It fell open on "The Melancholy Tale of the Hero of Time and Twilight."

The story's first page had a painting showing the Hero of Time, in his younger, more vital form as a blond-haired youth in forest green traveling clothes, and in his later form as a decayed skeleton in battered armor.

Zelda let out a deep sigh. This story had always made her sad. She never liked how the Hero of Time, so the story said, came to a sad end after an unfulfilled life.

"It's not fair," she said aloud to the empty library.

The library doors opened, and Zelda feared that Daltus might be back.

Instead, Link trotted in.

"Hey, Zelda, want to go play hide and seek down in the dungeons?" He looked down at the book. "What's that you're reading?"

"It's the story of the Hero of Time, and the Hero of Twilight." Zelda pointed to a large picture on the page, of a hero in a green tunic playing an ocarina as magical clouds swirled around him.

"Is it any good?" Link asked.

"Well…" Zelda paused. "It's kind of sad."

Link plopped down beside Zelda on the cushion, and the two of them began to read, munching on cookies as they did.

For a while, there was little noise in the library aside from the crackle of pages, and the continued patter of rain on the windows.

"At long last, having passed on his knowledge to his descendant, the Hero was able to go to a much-deserved rest, finding the peace he was never able to achieve in life," Zelda read. "The end."

Link frowned. "You're right. This story is really depressing."

"I wish he could have had a happy ending. I mean, he went through so much," Zelda said. "But when I say that, people say, that's how the story was written, and that's how it has to be. No questions."

Link rested his chin on the pillow. "That doesn't seem fair."

Zelda rolled over onto her back and stared up at the high ceiling of the library. Long ago, someone had painted a giant image of Nayru, the goddess of wisdom, in the center of the ceiling, and surrounded her with portraits of famous poets and scholars from Hyrule's history.

"You ever wonder who decides how stories end?" Zelda asked.

"What do you mean?" Link asked.

"Think about it, Link," Zelda said. "The Hero of Time was a thousand years ago. Maybe more. Nobody wrote it down back then, right? I mean, forever, people told stories instead of writing them down."

"So maybe there's some story out there about him that didn't get written down?" Link asked. "Or maybe people made up their own stories about him?"

"Mmm-hmm. If I were writing this story, I'd give it a completely different ending," Zelda said decisively. "I'd have him write his deeds all over Hyrule, for all of the bards to talk about. I'd have him dubbed as a knight of the kingdom. I'd have the Princess of Destiny be able to lead her own troops into battle. And, okay, I'd have the hero and the princess get married and have five children."

"Bo-ring," Link rolled his eyes.

"All right, genius, how would YOU write a story about the Hero of Time?" Zelda retorted.

"'Hi, I'm the Hero. I just flew in from seven years in the future, and boy are my arms tired.'" Link said in a goofy mock-heroic voice.

This made Zelda laugh loudly, uncontrollably, and Link found himself joining in.

"So let's try it," Zelda said once she'd recovered. "I'll start the story, and you pick it up, and we'll take turns."

"Sounds cool. Let's do it."

Zelda sat up on the cushion.

"Once upon a time," she began, "there was a boy. He lived in the deepest forest, among the Kokiri. But he wasn't a Kokiri himself, but he didn't know that." She stood and began walking around, as the fireplace cast shadows on the wall. "He kept having dreams about fire and shadows. And one day, the Deku Tree sent him forth to find the Princess of Destiny…" She stopped. "Okay, you take it from there."

"Okay, um…" Link thought for a moment. "So he came to the castle town, and they were having a really bad plague that made everyone break out in blotchy purple spots and cluck like cuccos, and they said, we need a hero to find us the medicine, but you need to fight ten monsters to do it, oh, and pole vault over the Dueling Peaks and go back five hundred years in the Temple of Time, and, uh…okay, I give up."

Zelda giggled. "But the plague also confused the people, so of those cures, only one of them would work, but they were not sure which. So the hero had quite a task ahead of him. He battled Moblins and Bokoblins, tamed Volvagia the dragon, and after much agony, found a hovering charm that could take him over the Dueling Peaks. But nothing worked. So he…"

"Hey, wait a minute, wasn't Navi supposed to be with him?" Link asked.

"Oh, that's right. Navi arrived. She'd been off visiting her fairy friends at the time the Deku Tree sent the hero forth. So as the hero was on the Dueling Peaks, feeling dizzy from being up so high, she flew in. She yelled, 'Hey! Listen!' And she told the hero to, um, uh…" Zelda shrugged and took a bite of cookie. "Your turn."

"Navi said, you dummy, you're supposed to go to the Temple of Time. But you need to stop by the castle and go see the Princess of Destiny, remember? So the hero went back down the mountain, feeling really stupid, and went back through the castle town, which was even more full of clucking people with blotchy blue spots…"

"You said they were purple spots!"

"Fine, whatever." Link grabbed a cookie from the plate and took a bite. "Okay, so the hero arrives at the castle, and the Princess of Destiny tells him that there's this guy Ganondorf who's been causing trouble with the king."

And it went on and on, with the story becoming even more bizarre by turns, with Octoroks dancing the polka, a contest to see who could juggle ten Bombchus without dropping them, and a big battle that nearly reduced the Temple of Time to rubble.

"And the hero and the princess found each other again in the Hyrule Castle garden," Zelda said.

"And Navi said, I'm done with you stupid kids, call me when you're ready to be serious. The end." Link finished.

And the two of them started laughing again.

"That was fun," Zelda said.

Both of them sat in silence for a little while.

"Wonder what else could have happened to him?" Link asked.

"Maybe he became the mask salesman in Termina," Zelda said. "You know, in the story of the mask and the falling moon? It's in here too."

"I'd have him travel a million years into the future, find some weapon that hasn't been invented yet, come back and take out Ganon. Like that!" Link snapped his fingers.

"Or maybe instead of Ganon, he has to fight his evil twin!" Zelda said. "Maybe even his own shadow!"

"And no one can tell which one of them is the good one and who's the evil one!" Link chimed in.

"Or maybe the hero got captured by Ganondorf and it's the princess who has to rescue him!"

"Oh, that could never happen," Link snorted.

"Says you!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

Link ran to the rack with the fireplace irons and grabbed the shovel. "Let's duel on it!"

"You're on!" Zelda grabbed the poker.

And the library echoed with the clanging and crashing of fireplace irons, and with Zelda and Link shouting things like "Avast there!" and "Have at thee, coward!" at each other.

They raced about and jumped over chairs and tables, still fighting, and climbed up onto the long wooden table that took up the main library floor. And they slashed and fought with a gusto that would have made the captain of the guards proud.

Neither of them heard the library doors open, or the footsteps marching swiftly across the floor.

"What is going on in here?" Daltus demanded. Zelda and Link froze where they stood on the table, poker and shovel still locked in combat.

"This is a place of serious study, not the castle playroom!" Daltus put his hands on his hips. "You two are nothing but trouble and it's a disgrace that you are behaving this way. If I had my way, I would…"

He was interrupted by the sound of a large book falling to the floor somewhere deep in the library. Daltus turned to face where the noise had come from, and then shot another accusing look at Link and Zelda.

"Wasn't us," Link said.

Daltus scowled as he went in search of the fallen book.

"C'mon, let's get out of here. He's going to be even grumpier than usual," Zelda said, hopping down from the table. She looked out the window. It was still raining heavily. "You still up for hide and seek in the dungeons?" she asked Link.

"Sure. But can we stop by the kitchens first? I'd love some more of those cookies."

**xLoZx**

Daltus muttered and grumbled to himself as he walked deeper into the library.

At one of the back shelves, he found the fallen book: a massive, dusty old tome on ancient legal matters. The book had heavy brass bindings on its tough leather cover, and it weighed almost as much as a cannonball, so it made a very loud bang when it hit the marble floor.

Daltus had quite a time picking it up and getting it back into its spot on the top shelf. Then he stalked off, completely oblivious to the two figures watching him from the shadows.

"I still think we should have knocked that suit of armor over," one of the figures said.

"Oh, no. A book falling off the shelf bothers him more than anything else," the second figure said.

They stepped out of the shadows.

The two figures were very faint, and one might have mistaken them for a trick of the light. If you looked just closely enough, you might think you had seen a young man wearing a tunic and traveling cap in hunter's green, and a young woman wearing the traditional court dress of Hyrule's royal women of generations ago.

The Hero of Time and the Princess of Destiny had each lived a dozen different lifetimes under an equal number of names. Some lifetimes were happier than others.

They walked slowly over to where Zelda and Link had left the big book of legends, and gazed down at the open book.

"I do think I rather like the children's story better than what the historians wrote down," the princess said. "The cucco plague was a nice touch."

"Did that happen to us? I can't remember," the hero said.

"I think you were going around with purple blotches for a while. Or is it that you will be going around with purple blotches?" the princess asked. "The ocarina. It can make things so confusing."

Both of them stood for a while, lost in thought.

Then they turned and walked, hand in hand, back toward the shadows.

"Don't those children seem familiar?" the hero asked.

"Why, yes, they do. I can't imagine how, though," the princess said nonchalantly.

"How do you think their own story will turn out?"

"Well, who can say? But I think we might have to spend a bit more time in this library on rainy days."

With that, they vanished into the shadows, to await the telling of the next story.

**xLoZx**

Reviews welcome!


End file.
